Away Houston Rockets Saturday Nov 10 2012

Well, it can tell you where the big prefers to get position defensively. It can tells you how he handles the pick-and-roll. It can tell you how well he boxes out. It can tell you whether he bites in up-fakes, whether he crosses his feet when going sideways, whether he gives a little upfake himself when he's putting a second shot back. It can tell you what types of shots he blocks better than others. It can tell you how to best pull him out of the lane. It can identify who he works best with, how to get leverage and move him out of the lane. To name a few.

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and the 15 minutes Dre and Monroe played together is a sufficient sample size to set up this killer scouting report that now has Frank unwilling to team them up for fear opposing teams will see these feet crossing lateral moves and stymie the juggernaut offense that is the Pistons 2013? I wont wait for your response since we all know the answer is NO. I believe in scouting reports, but there is no wayyyyyyy that has anything to do with the idiots decision to not play them together. If it does? he is dumber than a box of rocks and he should never be allowed anywhere without supervision.

What opposing coaches tell their players before a game: You might be looking to take a night off. Ease up on the intensity. Don't sink to their level or they might embarass you into coughing up their first win. Play hard, play smart and don't take the night off. until the 3rd quarter. Ok. All in! Team!

What is disappointing to me is the intensity at the perimeter. In countering a screen situation both the big and the guard try to trap the ball handler but the guards put only token pressure. When you trap you have to take away the passing options and put the ball handler on his heels. When we do it its like a bee buzzing around that gets side tracked and goes on to smell flowers. Then they other guys get an easy pass and we end up rotating (or fail to rotate) until Asik is under the basket with only Prince there to try not to inconvenience him while he lays the ball in. Speaking of intensity, they only turn up the D for short spurts and usually when the game is already out of hand.

Lin is legit. He's not a superstar but he definitely makes the most use of what he has and knifes into the lane. Its embarassing to see him get to the basket though 3 Piston defenders.

what can a scouting report tell you about a big that rebounds and moves looking for a pass? Its not like a scouting report that will tell you the player doesnt shoot well when you make him put it on the floor and drive right, or if you body him up he tends to fade away on his post shots....and what exactly can a scouting report entail after the whopping 20 total minutes theyve played together that could be so groundbreaking that our mastermind coach cant fix? BK seems to get worse because he like the rest of the starters are Pressing and every mistake is magnified because they are feeling the pressure of a 0- start.

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Seriously? That duo is so easy to stop offensively it's not even funny. The scouting report tells you to bang Andre away from the ball, sag off of Monroe-clog the lane, and entice him to take the jumper; doing all of that severely limits their effectiveness. Look I got nothing against the combination and hope it works out in the future, but I'm not blind or jaded, it's not a good combination to put on a court with 3 other bad players. The Monroe-Drummond combo would work if they were on the court with 2 really great perimeter players, but with Knight, Stuckey and Prince? PUH-LEEZE.

Seriously? That duo is so easy to stop offensively it's not even funny. The scouting report tells you to bang Andre away from the ball, sag off of Monroe-clog the lane, and entice him to take the jumper; doing all of that severely limits their effectiveness. Look I got nothing against the combination and hope it works out in the future, but I'm not blind or jaded, it's not a good combination to put on a court with 3 other bad players. The Monroe-Drummond combo would work if they were on the court with 2 really great perimeter players, but with Knight, Stuckey and Prince? PUH-LEEZE.

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so the monroe Max combo works better in your eyes? c,mon Lawrence stop it youre killin me. Bang andre away from the ball, wow that does absolutely nothing to deter his rebounding and he still manages to get drives to the hoop with his foot speed and agility. The combo of Dre and Monroe to me is an easy one simply for the defensive presence in the paint and the rebounding on both ends even if he never gets a single point...he is fairly adept at drawing fouls. He does more in limited minutes than Max does all night.

As much as I was ready for us to send Ben Gordon packing... maybe we should have kept him and sent Stuckey packing, his game just doesn't fit what were building with our 2 big men. They need shooters to create space, not a driving bad shooting guard who will keep the paint filled with defenders.

I really expected his outside shot to show some improvement over the years... and I don't see a trend of upwards shoots percentage. Outside of a big increase in his 2nd year 3 point shooting, its been up and down.

I guess I'd like to see Knight, English, Singler, Monroe, and Drummond to get a look at some point to see what they offer... but there is no way a lineup of 3 rookies 1 2nd year player and 1 3rd year player are going to compete at all in this league. I'd question that letting them get beat to a pulp would even hinder there growth... I would say give the 5 some burn here and there to see if they click for the future, but its not a game in game out solution to todays problem.

We are way to young to win many games... and its what we yelled for the last couple years. Folks wanted us younger, well we got it.

some interesting numbers

6: Pistons rotation players with three years or less experience (most in NBA)6: Pistons road games (most in NBA)0: Pistons games in conference (fewest in NBA)

so the monroe Max combo works better in your eyes? c,mon Lawrence stop it youre killin me. Bang andre away from the ball, wow that does absolutely nothing to deter his rebounding and he still manages to get drives to the hoop with his foot speed and agility. The combo of Dre and Monroe to me is an easy one simply for the defensive presence in the paint and the rebounding on both ends even if he never gets a single point...he is fairly adept at drawing fouls. He does more in limited minutes than Max does all night.

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FALSE! When you bang Dre he sulks, he did it in HS, college and he still does it now. Dude do you see how anemic our offensive unit already is? And truthfully Max is fine as far as I'm concerned. Between Max and JJ we're getting 18 and 9, which is pretty decent for THIS team. Again, for me this is less about Drummond and more about Monroe, Monroe needs to play better to get Dre on the court. If Monroe can defend better on the perimeter and consistently make jumpers, this combination can work, but until then................don't fool yourself. But I get it, were 0 - __ so it can't get any worse.

FALSE! When you bang Dre he sulks, he did it in HS, college and he still does it now. Dude do you see how anemic our offensive unit already is? And truthfully Max is fine as far as I'm concerned. Between Max and JJ we're getting 18 and 9, which is pretty decent for THIS team. Again, for me this is less about Drummond and more about Monroe, Monroe needs to play better to get Dre on the court. If Monroe can defend better on the perimeter and consistently make jumpers, this combination can work, but until then................don't fool yourself. But I get it, were 0 - __ so it can't get any worse.

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So he sulked in HS? seriously? Ive yet to see the tape on that but apparently you were scouting him and can vouch proof, his high school performance means squat now, he hasnt shown any sulk so far and actually has shown a willingness to bang, I was actually surprised a few times when he didnt recieve a foul for banging in the post. Max and JJ getting 18 and 9 is great , too bad they give up more than that on the other end. I dont care if you score 100 pts if you cant win your individual battles. Your view is exactly whats wrong with the team, everyone expects someone else to do their work. JJ and max will get 18 and 9 between them but someone else better stop their man on defense cause he'll go for 25 and 12. As far as Monroe dictating Dres minutes? why? what ever happened to earning your own minutes? Monroe will never be a defender...he just doesnt have it in his dna, he will play body up post defense and swat with his hands like Laimbeer. he needs Dre behind him to clean up his mistakes. Dre will make him better. The offense being what it is we need a offensive rebounder in there...which is dre if he is crashin the glass the opponent has to stay back and rebound which will help our defense.
We need our coach to get over himself and play dre with gm and english, bk and singler. When stuck comes in he needs to start driving and Dishing rather than forcing the shot every time. Monroe in the high post and dre patrolling the baseline to flatten out the defense. This will collapse the defense and give us spot ups for english and singler with GM and Dre crashing the glass. THIS is our real option at wins

Drummond seems to be causing most of the contact from what I've watched so far. He's elbowing, pushing in the back, fighting down low, etc. Most times when I watch him I'm shocked that he isn't getting 2 quick fouls out of the gate.

I didn't attend many of his HS games, but I can't imagine that a guy that big could get bullied on the court in HS.

As much as I was ready for us to send Ben Gordon packing... maybe we should have kept him and sent Stuckey packing, his game just doesn't fit what were building with our 2 big men. They need shooters to create space, not a driving bad shooting guard who will keep the paint filled with defenders.

I really expected his outside shot to show some improvement over the years... and I don't see a trend of upwards shoots percentage. Outside of a big increase in his 2nd year 3 point shooting, its been up and down.

I guess I'd like to see Knight, English, Singler, Monroe, and Drummond to get a look at some point to see what they offer... but there is no way a lineup of 3 rookies 1 2nd year player and 1 3rd year player are going to compete at all in this league. I'd question that letting them get beat to a pulp would even hinder there growth... I would say give the 5 some burn here and there to see if they click for the future, but its not a game in game out solution to todays problem.

We are way to young to win many games... and its what we yelled for the last couple years. Folks wanted us younger, well we got it.

some interesting numbers

6: Pistons rotation players with three years or less experience (most in NBA)6: Pistons road games (most in NBA)0: Pistons games in conference (fewest in NBA)

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Then have them be our bench. We can start the vets, and then have them move over for the young guys. That would specifically be starting Stuckey, Daye, Tay, JMAX, Kravtsov. There you go, three vets starting for you, but the young guys then get to play with nothing slowing them down.

Seriously? That duo is so easy to stop offensively it's not even funny. The scouting report tells you to bang Andre away from the ball, sag off of Monroe-clog the lane, and entice him to take the jumper; doing all of that severely limits their effectiveness. Look I got nothing against the combination and hope it works out in the future, but I'm not blind or jaded, it's not a good combination to put on a court with 3 other bad players. The Monroe-Drummond combo would work if they were on the court with 2 really great perimeter players, but with Knight, Stuckey and Prince? PUH-LEEZE.

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Very few people, if anybody, suggest leaving Prince or Stuckey in the starting unit when Drummond is added. More like using an actual shooting guard like English and a young hustling player like JJ or Singler at small forward.